© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8eChapter 6 - 1 Completing Business...
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Transcript of © Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8eChapter 6 - 1 Completing Business...
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 1
Completing Completing Business MessagesBusiness Messages
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 2
The Three-Step ProcessThe Three-Step Process
• Planning
• Writing
• Completing
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 3
Moving Beyond the First Moving Beyond the First DraftDraft
• Evaluating content, organization,
style and tone
• Reviewing for readability
• Editing for clarity and conciseness
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 4
Evaluating ContentEvaluating Content
• Is the information accurate?
• Is the information relevant?
• Is there enough information?
• Are generalities balanced with specific information?
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 5
Evaluating OrganizationEvaluating Organization
• Are all points covered logically?
• Do important ideas receive sufficient space and are they placed properly?
• Could the message be arranged in a more convincing sequence?
• Are points repeated unnecessarily?
• Are details grouped together logically?
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 6
Evaluating Style and Evaluating Style and ToneTone
• Does the writing meet the audience’s expectations?
• Is the writing too formal or academic?
• Is the writing too casual?
• Does the message focus on the audience’s needs?
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 7
Reviewing for Reviewing for ReadabilityReadability
• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score
• Flesch Reading Ease Score
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 8
Increasing “Skim” ValueIncreasing “Skim” Value
• Sentence length
• Short paragraphs
• Lists and bullets
• Headings and subheadings
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 9
Editing for ClarityEditing for Clarity
• Break up overly long sentences
• Rewrite hedging sentences
• Impose parallelism
• Correct dangling modifiers
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 10
Editing for ClarityEditing for Clarity
• Reword long noun sequences
• Replace camouflaged verbs
• Clarify sentence structure
• Clarify awkward references
• Moderate your enthusiasm
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 11
Editing for ConcisenessEditing for Conciseness
• Delete unnecessary words and phrases
• Shorten long words and phrases
• Eliminate redundancies
• Recast “It is/There are” starters
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 12
Revising with Revising with TechnologyTechnology
• Revision tools
• Spell checker
• Grammar checker
• Thesaurus
• Style checker
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 13
Producing the MessageProducing the Message
• Multimedia elements
• Design elements
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 14
Multimedia ElementsMultimedia Elements
• Presentation software
• Graphics software
• Video clips and sound bites
• Hypertext markup language
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 15
Designing for ReadabilityDesigning for Readability
• Improve the effectiveness of your message
• Influence the perceptions of your audience
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 16
Design ElementsDesign Elements
• Consistency
• Balance
• Restraint
• Detail
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 17
Design TechniquesDesign Techniques
• White space
• Margins
• Justification
• Typefaces
• Typestyles
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 18
Using TechnologyUsing Technology
• Templates and style sheets
• Page setup
• Column formatting
• Paragraph formatting
• Numbered and bulleted lists
• Tables and textboxes
• Pictures and objects
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 19
Business Letter FormatBusiness Letter Format
• Letterhead stationery
• Date
• Inside address
• Salutation
• The message
• Complimentary close
• Signature block
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 20
Memo FormatMemo Format
• Memo title
• Headings
• The message
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 21
Proofreading Your Proofreading Your MessageMessage
• Quality assurance– Undetected mistakes from the writing,
design, and layout stages–Mistakes that crept in during production
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 22
Proofreading AdviceProofreading Advice
• Make multiple passes
• Use perceptual tricks
• Double-check high-priority items
• Get some distance
• Stay focused and vigilant
• Print out electronic documents
• Take your time
© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 23
Distributing Your Distributing Your MessageMessage
• Cost concerns
• Convenience
• Time constraints
• Security and privacy